


Street Fighter

by DeadManWalked



Category: IT - Stephen King
Genre: Childhood Memories, Flashback, Fluff, Fluff and Humor, Gay Panic, IT 2017 - Freeform, M/M, Movie: IT Chapter Two, Reddie, childhood crush, reddie fanfiction
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-09-11
Updated: 2019-09-11
Packaged: 2020-10-14 07:54:22
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,650
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20597315
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DeadManWalked/pseuds/DeadManWalked
Summary: A short fluff Reddie story. Flashback to one of their childhood memories before the summer of 1989 and their encounters with IT.Where both boys are in a constant state of gay panic and doing chaotic things to get the others attention. Also, it’s a happier version of the arcade scene from IT: Chapter 2





	Street Fighter

**Author's Note:**

> Just a little fluff to mend our broken Reddie hearts! Hope you enjoy.

_2 weeks before summer 1989_

“Eat this, shitbag!” Eddie yells, frantically hitting the attack button.

“In your dreams, fuck-face,” Richie responded, moving forward to regain the offensive.

His hand gently brushed Eddies as he reached for the button, a touch that normal boys were unaware of. Despite this, Richie and Eddie were both hyper aware of their skin grazing one another that single moment before they became re-amerced in the round. Richie got one perfect attack in, plummeting the others health bar, and Eddie pushed him with his shoulder.

Some would call it cheating, but he figured playing against the highest ranking guy in town required some outside leverage. When the push didn’t help, he raised his elbow randomly and knocked the glasses off Richie’s face.

“That’s not fair, asshole!” Richie groaned as he knelt down and searched the floor.

Eddie laughed victoriously, before Richie’s head knocked into his thigh roughly in his blind state. Suddenly, all his abilities to focus were flown at the door and he looked blankly at the screen as he tried to remember how to play. Something he wouldn’t have figured out by the time Richie found his glasses. Then they were thrown right back into their match before Richie won. 

“Your attacks have no effect on me! I am the greatest fucking player in the world,” Richie laughed manically, butting his shoulder against Eddie’s. “You’re going to have to start calling me Senpai, Eds.”

“It’s sensei dumbass. Also, no I don’t because you don’t actually know martial arts,” Eddie said, rolling his eyes in annoyance. “Street Fighter is shit anyways. Let’s play one of the other games.”

“But—“

“I’ll play with you, Richie. I fucking love Street Fighter,” Owen Woods said, moving away from his place by Donkey Kong and replacing where Eddie stood.

Richie smiled at the redhead before looking over to Eddie, as if to ask permission. Eddie smiled in response, despite the brewing jealousy in his stomach, and walked over the the Pac-Man game next to them. He slipped in his last golden token into the slot and watched as the screen turned on and the game began.

The whomping noises as the yellow pac-man munched down on the white dots was soon drowned out by the boys beside him, laughing and shouting as they battled on. Eddie tried to push them out, focusing on the impending threat that the ghosts brought, but couldn’t help allowing his eyes to stray to the others.

Richie’s hair had fallen more in his face as he looked intensely at the screen, his whole body jerking like it always did when he became too immersed into what he was doing. Occasionally his left hand would fly up and push the brim of his glasses back with his thumb, even though they weren’t slipping.

Eddie was brought back to his reality once the whistling sound of pac-man being caught sounded off. He groaned softly, hating that his last game of the day was wasted due to his inability to focus. He moved back to let another person to take his place, leaning against the arcade wall and waiting for Richie to finish.

His stomach churned angrily when he saw how close the two boys were, shoulders brushing against each other with every flinch. Richie laughed loudly at something the other boy said, and suddenly Eddie couldn’t breathe. Richie laughed at himself more often then he did at others jokes, and the person who made him laugh the most was Eddie. Not this random kid from their grade that Richie never talked to before.

He reached down for his inhaler, bringing it to his lips and inhaling it deeply. The lingering taste of medicine was left on his tongue and lips as he put it away in his fanny pack. Then he looked at his watch, knowing that there was less than an hour before he was meant to be home, and decided that he’d rather go home early than waste time watching Richie play with someone else.

He walked forward just as Richie shouted out in triumph, trash mouthing the other boy with a large grin on his face. Eddie thought for a moment how cute that look was, but immediately pushed it away again.

“You kicked my ass!” Owen exclaimed before going in for a high five. “Wanna go another round?”

“Yeah, that’d be fun.”

“Hey Rich,” Eddie said awkwardly. “I’m gonna go home now, guess I’ll see you at school?”

Richie furrowed his eyebrows and pushed up his glasses before turning back to the red head, “Sorry buddy, I actually should get going to. Maybe another time.”

Richie grabbed his last remaining tokens and turned to walk with Eddie, pushing through the doors victoriously. His eyes flicked down to his watch, unsurprised that it wasn’t really time for them to leave, before dropping most of his tokens back into his pocket and plopping one in Eddies hand.

“You don’t have a curfew, Rich. Why’d you lie and say you had to go?” Eddie asked him, looking down at the token.

No matter what, Richie always gave Eddie one of his left over tokens so that he wouldn’t have an excuse not to play again the next day. He’d never done it for the other boys, but then again nobody else had asked about it either. Almost as if they weren’t surprised.

He shrugged, “Thought I should give your mom a kiss, since it’s been so long since I’ve seen her huge beautiful fat body. I miss her.”

Eddie shoved him into a wall, yelling out a mix of profanity’s despite the disapproval looks at the two from onlookers. Richie laughed softly before getting up and walking again, flicking Eddie’s head hard in revenge. They walked in silence for a moment, only their footsteps and the quiet jingle of the coins filling the air. That was another thing that Eddie couldn’t understand, since Richie had never left the arcade with spare coins unless he had spare change for them.

He said nothing though, because a part of him already knew the answer. Knew that the reason that Richie left wasn’t because of a curfew or to kiss his mom, but because he never lets Eddie walk home alone. If it wasn’t himself, then he’d make sure Bill or Stan went with him. Another thing that Richie did only for him, even without truly realizing it.

“Shit! Bowers at 3 o’clock!” Richie whisper yelled, pointing across the street to where the group of bullies stood on the sidewalk. Then he grabbed a hold of Eddie and forced them both into the alley way beside them, peaking over the corner to watch the gang.

“Fucking shit! What are we supposed to do? If they see us they’ll fucking kill us,” Eddie whispered, trying to crawl over Richie to peek as well.

“We still have some time before mommy dearest will expect you. We can walk back and go to my house instead, my mom would probably give you a ride home.”

Eddie stopped struggling, instead reaching for his inhaler again and breathing it in weakly. Richie turned to him, rolling his eyes before snatching his hand and forcing him forward. He dragged the wheezing boy along until they passed the arcade and crossed the street. Only then, face suddenly flushed, did he realize what he was doing and let go.

“You didn’t even look before crossing the street! We could’ve been hit by a fucking car, Richie.”

“Calm your tits, Eds. We didn’t, did we?”

Eddie huffed but said nothing, reopening his fanny pack and tucking his inhaler back inside. Then he smiled to himself, remembering the feeling of holding Richie’s hand. He glanced around him to see if anyone had noticed, and was glad to see that nobody had. In fact, as they eventually turned onto Richie’s street, there was nobody at all. He sighed softly, unconsciously moved closer to Richie as they walked until their arms brushed each other’s with each swing.

“That was fucking close,” Eddie grumbled as Richie reached under the doormat and unlocked the front door.

“Fucking Bowers and his pussy gang can go jerk each other off somewhere else,” Richie said as he walked through the house and leaped on to the kitchen counter. “Bastard threw my bag in shit water the other day.”

“At least he didn’t try to flush your head down the toilet,” Eddie mumbled, opening the fridge and grabbing them both Colas. “I had to fucking wash my face 10 times and threw up toilet water.”

Richie took the can from Eddie and watched as he sat on the chair below him. Anger at what Bowers did to both him and Eddie was quickly diminished once Eddie lazily rested his elbow on Richie’ thigh, using it as an arm rest. He nervously pushed up his glasses and took a sip of his drink.

“When’s your mom going to be home?” Eddie asked.

Richie shrugged, “Dunno, soon I think. You can use the telephone to let your mom know you might be late...and that I love her very much.”

Eddie rolled his eyes as he flicked Richie’s thigh before standing and walking over to the landline. He knew his mom wouldn’t like him being late, especially since he was at Richie’s, but he knew that was better than not calling at all. His eyes flickered back at the boy, now reading comics, before he dialed the last number and listened to the ring.

“Hey mommy,” He said, pointedly avoiding Richie’s laugh. “I’m going to be home a little late today, but Mrs Tozier is going to drop me off at home...Yes I know you don’t like me being...I’m sorry...Yes, I’ve taken my medicine...”

Richie’s eyebrow lifted at the sudden silence. A part of him always gets offended when he’s reminded of how Eddie’s mom, or any of his friends parents, don’t like him but by now he’s used to it. He scooted over on the counter until he was close enough to Eddie, reaching out to mess up the boys hair and flicking his ear.

“I gotta go now...I said I gotta go, bye mommy I love you.” Eddie rushed out and ended the call despite his mother’s protests.

He sighed softly, annoyed that his mother hated Richie so much and wasn’t afraid to tell him so over the phone. She kept yelling at him about how she doesn’t trust him, how his house is probably filthy (it wasn’t), and how he was a poor influence. All misguided judgements which made Eddie think there was another reason why she didn’t like Richie. Richie who just slapped the back of his head.

“Fuck off, Richie!” He groaned before turning around and shoving him, not hard enough to knock him off but enough to stop him.

“Oh, Eddie dear, you know how much I hate that little queer friend of yours. I don’t like that Richie, he probably has all those bad diseases. No Eddie, I love you sooo much and that’s why I’m so fat, because of my enormous love for you.” Richie gushed in a high woman’s voice meant to mimic Eddies mother.

“You’re full of shit, Richie!” Eddie huffed as he went back to his chair, but couldn’t help but appreciate how accurate the impression actually was.

“Come on, Spaghetti Head, you’ve got to admit that was exactly like your mother. I should know how she sounds saying my name, ya know because I fucked her!” Richie exclaimed before laughing maniacally.

“No you didn’t!” Eddie protested.

Richie shrugged, as if to say ‘that’s what you think’, before scooting over the counter and grabbing a bag of chips. Eddie reached out greedily for the bag, poking Richie’s thigh as he did so.

Richie stood up before slowly pouring both his left over soda and the bag of chips on to Eddie’s head. The anger radiated off the boy to the point Richie was surprised the coke didn’t begin to boil. He laughed as Eddie stood up, before running away when he grabbed his own soda with the intent to get revenge.

He leaped up the stairs two at a time before running into his room and slamming the door, pressing hard against it as Eddie tried to push through. Suddenly the resistance subsided and he listened carefully, before the door connecting to the bathroom swung open with a furious Eddie. Richie yelped, opening the bedroom door and running back down the staircase.

By the time his feet reached the bottom, Eddie leaped and latched on to his back. Richie stumbled but regained his balance, running as Eddie clung to him like a monkey. Then the cold sensation of soda met his skin under the hair before spilling down his back. Richie shouted out, thrashing around the living room like a bull trying to buck off a cowboy. Eventually he just collapsed backwards and knocked the air out of both of them.

“What the hell, Eds?” Richie groaned as the rolled away and touched his wet hair.

“I got you, bitch,” Eddie laughed.

Then they both fell into a mess of laughter, panting and covered in sticky cola. Tears began to stream down their faces as they laughed harder after seeing each other. Richie couldn’t help but notice that when he distracts Eddie and they play, Eddie never once needs his inhaler. Upon seeing the fanny pack again, he laughed harder. Their knees bumped into each other from close proximity.

They were so lost in their amusement they didn’t hear the garage door open as Richie’s mom entered the house. Her eyes scanned over the spilled soda on the kitchen floor and she called out, “Richie? What is this mess down here?”

She was met by the giggling of the boys, walking out and over to the living room where they laid. Confusion as well as shock spread across her face as she looked at them both clutching their stomach as they laughed, hair stuck to their forehead with soda. Richie looked up and her face was so amusing he laughed harder, pointing at her and causing Eddie to do the same.

Richie’s mom couldn’t help the small smile that graced her face, despite trying to maintain her composure. “What the hell happened here, boys?”

They managed to breathe out slowly and started to calm down. Richie stood up before helping Eddie to his feet. Then Richie smiled cheekily, whereas Eddie blushed as embarrassment flooded forward. Mrs Tozier was much more put together and serious than her son, so he felt like he’d been caught by the school principal.

“Hey mum,” Richie said. “Can you give Eddie a ride home?”

The woman sighed deeply, as if full of regret over her life choices, before curtly nodding and walking towards her room without another word. Richie chuckled softly before shrugging, walking over to the refrigerator for a new drink. He watched as Eddie gathered some paper towels from the counter then joined him as they both kneeled down to clean up, hands brushing one another’s as they did.

“I think we pissed your mom off, Rich,” Eddie whispered.

“Don’t worry about it, Eddie my love. This isn’t the worst thing I’ve done this week so something tells me I’m not in too much trouble.”

Eddie shook his head before they both stood after hearing the heels approach.

“Sorry about this, Mrs Tozier,” Eddie mumbled. 

“It’s not your fault my son is a monster,” The lady said, her voice deadpanned to the point that the boys couldn’t tell if she meant that. “Let’s get going though before your mother calls the police and reports you as missing.”

“Rematch at Street Fighter tomorrow, Eds. See ya there!” Richie called out as they walked into the garage.

“See ya, Rich.” Eddie agreed before climbing into the back seat.


End file.
